Does Anyone Deserve to be Chosen by God?

This week, we are examining the strong emotions and questions that come from the timeless truth that the sovereign God is free to choose some and reject others. Yesterday we looked at a story from the history of the Jewish people that revealed that God’s freedom to choose some and reject other is just because no one deserves to be chosen. The Jewish people did not deserve to be chosen by God because the Jewish people rebelled against God. And as a result the Jewish people were responsible to face God’s right and just response to their rebellion. However, God in His sovereignty has the freedom to choose to extend grace and forgiveness to some, even though none deserved it.

But not only do we see this principle play out in the lives of the Jewish people; we also see this principle play out in the lives of those who were not Jewish, as Paul reveals for us beginning in Romans 9:17:

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

Here we see Paul point the readers of this letter to another story that is recorded for us in the book of Exodus, this time in Exodus 9. But to fully understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to answer two questions. First, we need to understand the context in which this story takes place. Second, we need to understand what Paul means when he says that God hardens whom He desires in verse 18. So let’s look at the context first.

At this point in God’s story, the Jewish people are still enslaved by the nation of Egypt. The ruler of the nation of Egypt was called the Pharaoh. Now a pharaoh was not only viewed as a political leader; a pharaoh was also viewed and worshipped as a god. As the Jewish people cried out for deliverance from slavery, God responded by calling and sending Moses as His messenger and His representative to Pharaoh. In God’s initial conversation with Moses, we see God say the following to Moses regarding how Pharaoh would respond to his message, which is recorded for us in Exodus 3:19:

"But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion.

You see, God, in His foreknowledge, knew that Pharaoh would not allow the Jewish people to leave on His own. God already knew how Pharaoh was going to respond. And that is exactly how Pharaoh responded. Pharaoh refused to release the Jewish people from slavery. Pharaoh continued to view himself as God and continued to rebel against God. And it is in this context that we read the following in Exodus 9:13-17:

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. "For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. "For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. "But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. "Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go.

God is saying to Pharaoh “while you think you are large and in charge, the reality is that the only reason that you are where you are is because I placed you there. And I have placed you there so that I will be clearly seen as being the one true sovereign God who is large and in charge. While you think you are large and in charge, I am going to use you to reveal that I am actually large and in charge. The whole world will talk about what I am about to do to you”.

What makes this passage difficult to swallow, however, are Paul’s words in verse 18; “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” The word harden, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to cause to be unyielding in resisting information. So Paul seems to be saying that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Paul seems to be saying that God made it impossible for Pharaoh to repent. Is that the case? And if it is, that seems harsh and unjust doesn’t it?

In the book of Exodus, we discover that 10 times Pharaoh hardened his own heart and 10 times God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Seven times Pharaoh hardened his own heart before God hardened it. The first time that we see the phrase, however, it was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart. To fully understand what is happening here, we must understand the connection between God’s foreknowledge and God’s sovereignty. For God to take a person who lived in right relationship with God and harden their heart so that they would be eternally separated from God in Hell would be unfair, would we all agree?

Now here is the question: is that the type of person that Pharaoh was? No, it was not as though Pharaoh was a devoted follower of God that God hardened so that he would rebel against Him. Pharaoh was a selfish and rebellious person who viewed himself as God. And God was fully aware of what that selfishness and rebellion would look like before it even happened. Now here is a more personal and difficult question to wrestle with: What type of people are we apart from God’s transformational activity? What type of people are we apart from God’s grace?

You see God’s hardening is an act directed against human beings who are already in rebellion against God and the word of God. God’s hardening does not cause spiritual insensitivity to the things of God; it maintains people in the state of selfishness and sin that already characterizes them. Paul’s point here is that God hardens whoever He chooses and human beings, because of their rebellion, are responsible for their ultimate condemnation. God does not take good people and make them bad. Instead God chooses to confirm and set into place the selfishness and rebellion that is already present in them. The great reformed theologian Calvin referred to this truth this way: “The same sun which melts the wax also hardens the clay”.

Because, the timeless reality is that God’s freedom to choose some and reject others is just because no one deserves to be chosen. God sovereignly chooses to confirm and set into place the selfishness and rebellion that is already present in some. And God sovereignly chooses, by His gracious and transformational activity, to melt and bend some hearts to Him. But no one deserves that grace. As Paul continues his letter, we see him respond to a second potential question that the members of the church at Rome could have. Tomorrow we will look at that question and Paul's answer.